The present invention relates to project management systems in general. More specifically, the present invention relates to mechanisms for reconciling complex and overlapping responsibilities for complex tasks such as those found in a healthcare environment with task allocation models that may be supported by workflow engines. However, the present invention is equally applicable in other industries where complex task allocation is required.
Prior art workflow engines permit manipulation of workflow processes, including defining individual work steps to be allocated to systems, individuals, groups of individuals or systems, or combinations thereof. For work steps delegated to systems, individuals, or groups, a desired task description is typically placed into a destination work list, e.g. a set of tasks to be accomplished, at least in part, by or for that system, individual, or group. Destination work lists may be defined at the time that the workflow process definition is created.
Work steps are typically placed into a specific destination work list in response to an event such as the completion of a previous work step or the reception of a system message, rather than when an individual or system is ready to carry out the task associated with that work step.
Prior art workflow models are insufficient for a complex industry such as healthcare. By way of example, in a healthcare system a task such as xe2x80x9cdispense medicationxe2x80x9d may be defined within a workflow process named xe2x80x9cmedication administration.xe2x80x9d However, at the time that the workflow process is defined, several degrees of uncertainty may exist including specifics regarding medication, a patient to whom the medication will be administered, a time when the administration is due, and the person who will be responsible at that time for administering the medication. It is preferable that a single process definition should be applicable to all instances of the process, e.g. a drug administration definition should be applicable to the administration of Drug A by nurse Jones on 4 West to patient Smith as well as the administration of Drug B by nurse Galloway to patient McCall on 3 South.
Additionally, in healthcare many individuals may share responsibility for a single service task, and therefore it may be necessary to view the same service task within multiple work lists. For example, nurse Galloway may be on a team with two other nurses. While each nurse on the team may have primary responsibility for a select group of patients, the other two may have secondary responsibility to perform service tasks for those patients if the first nurse, e.g. Galloway, is not available. Therefore, all three nurses may need to see overlapping work items on their own work lists, although these items may need to be presented differently depending on whether the nurse has primary or secondary responsibility. Additionally, a head floor nurse, prior to assigning a new admission, may need to see all of her subordinate nurses"" pending tasks.
Prior art workflow engines require an explicit association of work steps and work lists at the time a process is designed. Further, each prior art work step is typically delegated to its associated work list when a system event occurs, not when an individual or system is ready to carry out the service task associated with that work step. This mechanism is inadequate for complex industries such as healthcare. Using the example above, all medication administration work steps could be assigned to a group of nurses who may use a descriptor such as xe2x80x9cfloor nurse.xe2x80x9d If a separate group were assigned for each nursing floor, then a separate workflow process would have to be defined for medication administration for each nursing unit. Even then, all of the nurses on each nursing floor would be exposed to all of the patients"" service tasks, and there would be no mechanism to explicitly assign service tasks to an appropriate, responsible nurse. Instead each nurse would have to search through the entire ward""s nursing tasks to find her own.
Some prior art systems allow for administrative oversight of running tasks, with the ability to manually reassign responsibility for a service task from one individual to another. However, the volume and complexity of doing this in a healthcare setting makes it impractical. By way of example and not limitation, role assignment in healthcare may require that each of the following occur independently: optimal processes are configured, workers are assigned roles (by way of example, IV nurse, floor nurse), roles are correlated with service tasks, and workers assume responsibility for patients. All of these factors taken in concert may determine the appropriate individual responsibility for the performance of a task.
Additionally, some prior art workflow systems allow work items to be delegated to a xe2x80x9crole.xe2x80x9d This allows a service task to be assigned to an individual who will satisfy a role before the process instance is run. By way of example, this can support task delegation to an xe2x80x9cofficer of the day,xe2x80x9d as a different officer could assume the role each day. However, this is also not sufficient for healthcare. By way of example, the responsibility for performing a task is not only related to which nurses will be working on xe2x80x9c4 Westxe2x80x9d on a given day and on a given shift, but also upon which patients will be admitted and which nurses will have direct responsibility for which patients. Therefore, it is not possible at workflow process design time to determine which role the task needs to be delegated to.
The present invention comprises a method for providing a displayable schedule of service tasks to be performed by a particular worker of a plurality of workers, e.g. tasks to be undertaken for or on behalf of specific individuals or objects such as products, equipment, and/or supplies. In an embodiment, the method comprises receiving worker identification information; generating a compilation of service tasks to be performed by the identified worker based on a role or roles assigned to the worker and a list of individuals or objects associated with the worker; and initiating display of the compilation.
In a further embodiment, the method comprises defining roles; defining work step types; creating work steps to be accomplished by workers; mapping work steps to the work step types; mapping work step types to roles; receiving identification information about a worker; assigning at least one role to the worker; generating a record of service tasks to be performed by the worker in response to the received identification information based on the at least one role, the performable tasks"" targeted service tasks, and the assigned relationship between the worker and those targeted service tasks; and initiating display of the compiled list of tasks.
The scope of protection is not limited by the summary of an exemplary embodiment set out above, but is only limited by the claims.